BioPortUSA Team

The team that is leading and advising BioPortUSA is comprised of highly experienced and uniquely talented industry executives with current U.S. market experience as well as former international responsibilities:

Advisory Board Members

William L. Ashton, M.Ed
Bill is a Fortune 100 senior executive with over seventeen years experience in Biotechnology management. He is extremely skilled at developing and executing long term business strategies. Bill has been recognized in the U.S. biopharmaceuticals market for his expertise in building and developing commercial operations and establishing key relationships with government agencies. Bill recently retired from a lengthy career at Amgen Inc., the world’s largest biotech firm. He served as VP of Commercial Affairs and Reimbursement (2003 – 2005) and was directly responsible for strategy development and corporate activities designed for key government agencies including: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Office of Inspector General, Government Accountability Office, Office of Management and Budget, and MedPAC. Prior to that, Bill was VP/General Manager for one of the Amgen key business units where he had responsibility for sales and marketing of Amgen’s largest customer base including Health Systems, Managed Care Organizations, Commercial and Government Payors, Distribution Channel, GPO’s and Physicians’ Practice Management Groups. Bill holds both Bachelor and Master degrees in Education and is currently an Associate Professor at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. Additionally, he serves on several boards as an Advisor and as an Executive Board Member.

Bruce C. Belzak
Bruce C. Belzak, Managing Director, is the National Practice Leader for Marsh's Life Sciences Practice and is based in the Philadelphia Office. He is also the Client Executive for GlaxoSmithKline and Senior Relationship Officer for a number of the firm's major clients. Bruce has spent his entire career with Marsh, beginning as a trainee in the New York office, then transferring to Detroit, Stamford and Philadelphia, serving in various positions ranging from office head, practice leader and client executive. Bruce's experience has included overseeing due diligence projects and designing creative solutions to facilitate merger, acquisition and divestiture activities; developing innovative solutions to reduce Cost of Risk; and identifying revenue growth strategies for clients. Bruce also founded and served as Chairman of the City of Philadelphia's Private Sector Task Force for Risk Management that led to the creation of the City's current risk management department. He is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University. His outside affiliations include serving on the Broker Advisory Council of Medmarc Insurance Group; member of the Association for Corporate Growth and The Greater Philadelphia Smeal College Alumni Business Club; member of BNA's Pharmaceutical Law & Industry Report advisory board; member of Temple University Fox School of Business IMBA MBA Consulting Advisory Board; Alumni Trustee of The Walnut Street Theatre, the largest non-profit theatre in the world; and selected as Risk & Insurance Magazine's 2006, 2007 and 2008 Pharmaceutical Power Broker.

Steven M. Cohen, Esq.
Steven co-manages the Emerging Business and Technology Practice of Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP. His legal practice focuses on advising emerging companies, with emphasis in the life sciences industry. Morgan Lewis is a multi-national law firm with over 1,300 lawyers in 22 offices and expertise in representing life sciences companies throughout the product life cycle including business entity structuring; venture capital financing; intellectual property protection; employment law and equity-based executive compensation plans; FDA Regulatory issues; reimbursement strategies; strategic alliances and licensing agreements; divestures and mergers; and providing general corporate and securities advice. Representative clients include Barrier Therapeutics, Transave and Care Capital. Steve is a graduate of New York University School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania, Wharton School of Business.

Christopher E. Kinum
Christopher E. Kinum joined Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, Inc. in 2001 as Executive Managing Director, responsible for NJ business operations. He currently serves as Executive Director of the Global Life Science Practice (GLSP), a specialty practice group formed in 2002 to address the strategic business needs of pharmaceutical, private and academic research organizations, and corporations. Christopher brings over 25 years of experience in the real estate industry during which time he has provided strategic counsel and transaction services to numerous corporations and firms on a global basis. His direct experience includes portfolio valuations, management, and strategic planning dedicated to the expansion and consolidation of corporate real estate holdings. Christopher is also experienced in sale lease backs, acquisitions and divestitures, 1031 exchanges, and the leasing and subleasing of office, industrial, research and development facilities. Prior to his current role, he was a partner with The Garibaldi Group where he represented major clients, including Schering-Plough Corporation, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Accenture (formerly Arthur Anderson). Christopher served as Schering-Plough Corporation's worldwide real estate representative, and as Arthur Andersen’s Metro New York real estate consultant. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Dartmouth College and an M.S. in Administration from Seton Hall University. He is a member of the Advisory Board for the Blanche and Irwin Lerner Center for Pharmaceutical Management Studies at Rutgers University and is an advisor to the New Jersey CoreNet Board of Directors.

Michael E. Laird, RPh
Mike is Senior Vice President, Worldwide Business Development for PharmaNet Development Group, a contract research organization (CRO) that develops new products for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, and generic drug industries. He has more than 26 years of relevant industry experience, including senior-level positions at Smith, Kline & French, Marion Merrell Dow, Proctor & Gamble Pharmaceuticals, and Kendle International. In his current position since 2002 as global head of business development, Mike is responsible for overseeing existing client relationships and managing the pursuit of new business. Mike is a registered pharmacist, having attended the Clinical Pharmacy Program at Washington University and receiving his B.S. in Pharmacy from St. Louis College of Pharmacy in St. Louis, Missouri.

Giorgio Mosconi, M.D., Ph.D.
Giorgio is founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Acureon Pharma, a specialty anti-infectives pharmaceutical company based in the United States. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President, Business Development at Vicuron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: MICU) since the start of operations. Vicuron, acquired by Pfizer in 2005, resulted from the merger between Biosearch Italia (Nuovo Mercato: MICU.MI) and Versicor Inc. (Nasdaq: VERS). In 2000, Giorgio joined Biosearch Italia, a newly formed private biotech company, as Vice President, Medical Affairs and Business Development, where he made a significant contribution to the definition and implementation of the company strategy that led to a successful IPO (240 M Euros). From 1996 to 2000, he was European Executive Director for R&D Anti-infectives and Immunology at Bristol-Myers-Squibb. Giorgio has acquired extensive experience in Business Development, Clinical Development, and Medical & Marketing strategy in the field of anti-infectives. He is also the author of more than 40 scientific publications and co-inventor of twelve patents.

John Pennett, CPA
John Pennett is an Audit Officer and Director of the Life Sciences Practice at Amper, Politziner & Mattia. He has more than 20 years of public accounting experience with a strong emphasis on public and private life sciences companies. John is a frequent writer and speaker on topics related to issues impacting businesses in the life sciences and technology space. He is the publisher of Catalyst, a magazine focused solely on issues facing Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical companies. John also serves on the firm’s Public Companies and Technology Groups. John is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the New Jersey Society of Certified Public Accountants, where he serves on the Cooperation with Bankers Committee. He is also a member of the Biotechnology Council of New Jersey, where he is active in the CFO Forum, Pennsylvania Bio, the New Jersey Technology Council and the Accounting Advisory Board of the Rutgers University School of Business. He is a graduate of Rutgers University and previously worked as audit partner for an international accounting and consulting firm.

Marvin I. Siegel, Ph.D.
Marvin Siegel is senior Life Sciences executive with expertise in building companies, managing strategic alliances and organizational development. He has extensive background in biological research, new drug discovery and drug development with specific experience in venture capital fund raising, strategic planning, competitive intelligence, business development and leadership of scientists and physicians. Dr. Siegel has a proven track record in the introduction of new drugs to the market. Additionally, as an executive at Schering Plough and later at the biotechnology companies Terrapin (now Telik) and Stressgen (now Nventa), he has vast experience in the management of multi-disciplinary teams and execution of large process development, manufacturing and clinical projects in the U.S. and international markets. As founder and president of Rebbeson Inc., he has led a successful consulting company advising entrepreneurial companies. He is also the author of 170 publications and holder of 21 patents. He earned his Doctorate degree in physiological chemistry at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, his Master degree in chemistry from Columbia University and his Bachelor degree in chemistry from Lafayette College. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology as well as a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists.

Management Team

James K. Laird, MBA – President & CEO
Jim is the President & CEO of BioPortUSA. He is a senior level life sciences executive with extensive experience in the growth of early-stage and mid-sized companies. Jim has successfully managed the financial and operating functions of several organizations including: business development, legal, business metrics and unit management, venture capital funding, mergers and acquisitions, and P&L. He offers diversified entrepreneurial business expertise in the life sciences industry with a history of identifying core business problems and implementing programs to build profitability and accelerate growth. Jim had a 20-year career with SmithKline Beecham (now GlaxoSmithKline) working in both the U.S. market and a host of international countries. Additionally, he founded, built and sold several life science services firms in the United States. Jim holds a Master of Business Administration degree (International Marketing) and a Bachelor of Science degree (pharmacology).

Bradley Allen – Vice President, Business Development
Brad retired as a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2008. He had been with the firm for 33 years and was admitted into the partnership in 1986. Brad has worked in the Firm's Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Tokyo, Japan and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia offices. He was also with the Global Assurance Methodology Group and US national Private Company Services Group. In addition to client service in the Assurance practice, Brad has developed strategic, marketing and operational plans, implemented learning and education programs, created new service lines and led change management programmes. Before becoming the PCS Site Leader, Brad was one of three partners charged with the responsibility of opening a new satellite office in the Philadelphia suburbs. This office was grown to 50 people within five years and during that time Brad became the High Technology leader for the Philadelphia Area. Brad has been on the faculty of several universities and has authored several publications on both technical and business improvement topics. He is a member of the American and Pennsylvania Institutes of Certified Public Accountants and received his BS in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University in 1975.

Chris Blaxland – Head, Business Development
Chris Blaxland is the Vice President of Business Development for BioPortUSA. Chris brings 30 years of broad biopharmaceutical experience to his role of matching BioPortUSA services to client company needs. He has hands-on experience in large and early stage businesses, including general management, product development, marketing and technical aspects of the industry as well as the operational issues of establishing new biopharmaceutical companies. He also has experience in management of manufacturing and regulatory affairs. Chris's career of 20+ years at GlaxoSmithKline (SmithKline Beecham and SK&F) culminated in having worldwide responsibility for strategic development of a major portfolio. He served as general manager of pharmaceutical operations in the Netherlands and led the sales and marketing functions in Australia and South Korea. Chris had senior executive positions in the formative and development stages of new and small bio-pharmaceutical companies (including PTC Therapeutics, Cell Pathways) leading their corporate development to becoming established research and development organizations. Most recently, he has been an active industry consultant providing strategic and interim management to early stage biopharmaceutical and device companies. Chris trained as a veterinarian at the University of Sydney and practiced that profession in Australia and the United Kingdom before joining the pharmaceutical industry.

Barbara Plevelich – Head, Marketing & Communications
Barbara is experienced in agency, corporate, and government public relations. Her professional skill set includes communication planning, website content development, marketing, media relations, public advocacy campaigns and international public affairs. Barbara has developed and implemented national public safety and health campaigns. Her government experience includes public affairs roles in the Office of the United States Trade Representative, the Environmental Protection Agency and the General Services Administration. Barbara also served on the public affairs team at the British Embassy in Washington, DC where she developed communication strategies for the British government’s science and environmental policy.

Jim Rudman – Head, Finance & Administration
Jim has over 25 years of human capital management experience. Since 1982, he has held a variety of positions in the staffing industry across a diverse cross section of industries and a wide array of corporate sectors. From opening start-up branches of privately held permanent placement and staffing companies to executive level positions in national placement firms, Jim has gained extensive knowledge of the human capital market. In 2004, Jim founded Ashton Tweed Ltd., “The Executive Talent Bank Company,” servicing the life sciences industry in the U.S. market. His expertise includes strategic hiring of interim and permanent executive talent and the deployment of commercialization consultants.

Jordan Warshafsky – Chief Operating Officer
Jordan has more than 25 years of healthcare industry experience with a strong history of advancement within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device sectors. His professional skill set includes corporate and division level leadership of business development, global marketing and strategic planning. Responsible for P&L goals for early stage and mature organizations as well as extensive marketing/sales, market research, and licensing/acquisition, Jordan has also completed strategic acquisitions for public companies. Most recently, he served as President and Director of a biotechnology company specializing in polymer drug delivery. Additionally he served in a senior executive position with Bristol–Myers Squibb with responsibility for the worldwide management of hospital anti-infective products and with the subsidiary division (ConvaTec) where he was responsible for the acquisition and in-licensing of wound care products. Jordan holds a Masters of Business Administration degree and a Bachelor of Science degree.